Konstantin Wecker, Willi

This is a very moving performance of an elegy for a friend called Willi, killed by fascists in a pub brawl in Munich over their singing of a Nazi song. Listening, I’m moved to tears. Wecker, a 68 veteran of my generation, is singing in a strong Bavarian dialect. The refrain translates as ‘yesterday they beat Willi to death, today he’s being buried.’ The song touches on the meaning of courage, sticking to one’s beliefs and freedom as a lack of personal fear. We’re told Willi had also always been sceptical of the merely fashionable, trendy ‘radicals’ who later betrayed their beliefs. Perhaps non-German speakers can just enjoy the intensity of the performance.